Apparently, the new horse has finally been confirmed as replacing the classic horse we all know and love. To quote Matt Ashton, Senior Director at LEGO:

"Our core target audience of 5-10 year old boys has told us in ongoing testing that the original LEGO horse is a bit ‘baby-ish’, and too static to play with properly. So we’ve re-designed the LEGO horse to make it more dynamic, pose-able and appealing by adding a higher level of detail. The new horse will appear in the LEGO Lord of the Rings sets will be released in June 2012.

"The new horse can now kick, bolt and rear up on its hind legs, making it much more playable and pose-able, while the refined detail level has also made it seem more ‘grown-up’ and ‘cooler’ in kids’ eyes.

"In making these changes we have obviously had to take into consideration several different challenges.

"First, we are fully aware that the ‘original’ horse may be perceived as a LEGO icon in many consumers’ eyes. So, when designing the new horse, we did our best to create a new version that pays homage to the original horse, particularly its proportions, silhouette and decoration style.

"Second, we have made some design choices in regards to the compatibility between the ‘new’ horse and the existing horse accessories. The existing saddle element can be used with the new version of the horse. The new horse can also wear the current barding, although it cannot be posed while wearing this element. We will be developing a replacement barding for future product launches, ensuring that the horse can be dressed for battle and still be fully pose-able.However, by streamlining the new horse’s head to make it more dynamic and more like a ‘real’ horse, we had to decide that the existing horse headgear/head plates would not compatible with the new horse. These pieces will also soon be replaced with new elements in future products.

"We apologize for any inconvenience or frustration this may cause to certain collectors, but we are striving to ensure that we are ultimately creating the best product and play experience for our core audience for the long term."

So, what do you guys think? Speculation about the new horse vs. old horse has been going about for a while, but official confirmation from LEGO is something I wasn't expecting. As the above quote states, some new pieces will be made to accommodate the new horse's playability. While looking forward to this, I'll be sure to stock up on the classic horse in it's swan song era.

To mods: I didn't know whether to put this in General LEGO or LEGO Castle Sets. Since it's an issue that is mostly Castle related (what will our knights ride now?) I figured it would be a better fit in the LEGO Castle Sets section. Move it if you feel otherwise, and I apologize if it does have to be moved.

Noooooooooo , I was hoping it was just licensed sets but at the very least we can but the old bard on but we can't put the really cool Kingdoms horse head armor on .That means if we get any non-licensed sets after or during LotR they'll be the new horse and they won't have the new Kingdoms head armor on, plus we'll never get a old style horse in tan(guess I'll have to sun bleach a few old ones ) ~KnightMan~

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What's the problem with just using the old pieces on the old horses and the new pieces on the new horses? Sounds like they've tried to keep it on keeping with a classic lego style. And judging from the LOTR pictures they've done a great job of updating it without making the old one look ridiculous in comparison. It's good news that the bardings fit the new horses, and I guess they'll basically chop out the back to enable posing in the future parts.

I think the most interesting thing mentioned is that they will be developing barding. Hopefully that helps indicate there's a future in the line after LotR because I don't really recall barding being featured in the movies.

Sweet. Pretty happy about this. Although it's a shame the headgear wont fit.

Actually... curious about that. It's entirely possible that the overall horse will be put together in a similar way to the old one. Which means, theoretically, one could pray apart a new and old horse of matching colours and add the old head to the new body. Unless of course they've changed the head mount.

Anyway. Excited. The old horses were cute, but they were very static and I tended to use brick-built horses when I could, but that has its own problems (limited colour palette, uses up nice parts, etc).

This is one of my only disappointments regarding me finding the article. However, LEGO seemed to implying there will be new headgear for it. And with the head shape, who knows what kind of attachments and styles LEGO could come up with.

As much as it saddens to see the classic horse go, I think its time for a update, its been around almost 30 years and the new horse looks pretty good

andhe wrote: Sounds like they've tried to keep it on keeping with a classic lego style. And judging from the LOTR pictures they've done a great job of updating it without making the old one look ridiculous in comparison

Yes exactly, it goes well tougheter with the old horse and that is good.

andhe wrote:It's good news that the bardings fit the new horses, and I guess they'll basically chop out the back to enable posing in the future parts.

This is good news and the head pieces can be used for the old horses, no need to stop using those just because they updated to a new horse

"We will be developing a replacement barding for future product launches, ensuring that the horse can be dressed for battle and still be fully pose-able."

There's no barding on the horses in the Lord Of the Rings stories and barding is only found on castle/ninja sets. So what are they making the barding for? Sounds as if Lego are already planning the next line of castle sets.

I still like the old Lego horses and will miss them. But there's only so many white, black and brown horses you can have before they look like a clone army. Hopefully we get some new coloured horses like the grey horse in the mill raid set. The few that I've seen in the LOTR sets look great especially with the white patches on their faces.

The leg movement and poseability of the bears from the city sets is great. I have 2 of them standing on my desk and they are great fun to play with instead of working. I really enjoy the direction that Lego is going with their animals in the last few years. The camel, goats, cows, pigs, chickens, ostriches and now the horses. Hope it means we will get a new range of animals with more movement. I'm hoping that we get a wolf/warg with moveable legs.. How cool would it be to have the Wolf Pack riding into battle on wolves.